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A quick survey on the future use of social networking with members of the UKASFP
A while back I ran a short survey with the members of the UKASFP on their current use of social networking tools and future use. It's taken me a few weeks to get a blog post together due to the many other projects on going, however here's a few words about this topic.
What is social media and social networking?
Social media (the type of content that drives social networking) is best understood as a group of new kinds of online media, which share most or all of the following characteristics:
PARTICIPATION
social media encourages contributions and feedback from everyone who is interested. It blurs the line between media and audience.
OPENNESS
most social media services are open to feedback and participation. They encourage
voting, comments and the sharing of information. There are rarely any barriers to accessing and making use of content – password-protected content is frowned on.
CONVERSATION
whereas traditional media is about “broadcast” (content transmitted or distributed to an audience) social media is better seen as a two-way conversation.
COMMUNITY
social media allows communities to form quickly and communicate effectively. Communities share common interests, such as a love of photography, a political issue or a favourite TV show.
CONNECTEDNESS
Most kinds of social media thrive on their connectedness, making use of links to other sites, resources and people.
Survey results:
58 responders
12 countries identifiable from IP addresses including Slovenia, Russia, Serbia, Taiwan and Saudi Arabia.
The results were:
Q.1 Do you use any social networking sites?
Yes 31 (53.4%)
No 27 (46.6%)
Q.2 If you answered yes to Q1, how often do you use these sites?
Daily 9 (28.1%)
Monthly 6 (18.8%)
Weekly 5 (15.6%)
Hardly ever 12 (37.5%)
Q.3 How will you see yourself using social networking sites in the future?
More often 30 (51.7%)
Not at all 18 (31%)
Less often 10 (17.2%)
Q.4 Do you think online social networking will play an important role in your future?
Not sure yet 23 (39.7%)
No 19 (32.8%)
Yes 16 (27.6%)
Q.5 Can you get internet and email on your mobile phone?
No 37 (63.8%)
Yes 21 (36.2%)
Although the survey only gathers the data from around 1/3 of the Association members, it indicates that of these around 53% use social networking sites such as facebook, bebo, myspace etc. Interestingly around 1/3 of these use the sites hardly at al while 28% use daily with other using either weekly or monthly.
When asking all respondents if they will use these sites in the future 51.7% said they would more often, around 1/3 said not at all and a few even less often.
When asked if the respondents felt that social networking sites will play an important role in the future the results where relatively evenly spread between not sure, no and yes.
The significant results in relation to the current focus on embracing social networking in the UKASFP seems to be that at least half the respondents already use social networking sites with the majority of these continuing to do so.
In terms of a future focus it is interesting to see that more than half see themselves as using social networking in the future. This is an important factor to keep in mind when developing a social network platform that integrates with other platforms such as facebook and flickr.
The survey results also indicate the need to be mindful that not everyone shares the same enthusiasm for new web technologies and approaches as 17% of the respondents felt they would use socialnetworking sites less in the future and around a third felt that social networking would not play an important part in their future.
Many of the current technologies on hand are designed to be used on mobile systems such as mobile phones, these technologies allow such things as mass participation at events and location based networking (conferences etc). It is important to keep in mind though, that only 36% of respondent’s access even email on their phones therefore any developments in the future requiring accessing data on a mobile phone needs to be useful to a higher percentage.
What is already working?
At present we have an email list that is proving useful for a number of association members, we have a business focused website (ukasfp.co.uk) and now we have the more social network focused website (ukasfp.com) which allows content to be developed from the members, the community of practice.
Getting curious
At first the ideas of introducing technology into the association may seem daunting, however I believe we are already using much of this useful technology, however it is in the way we use the media that is important. The purpose of this survey and blog post is to only to encourage the first steps into getting curious about the range of social networking applications available, for others this post will hopefully be encouraging more user generated content.
Next steps
We currently have a number of projects under way that will develop the UKASFP’s presence on the internet. The first is a wikipedia page on Solution Focused Practice developed by a small team of UKASFP members. Although we cannot own the wiki page due to the collaboration process surrounding the application we can have a prominent association with the wiki. I believe the wiki page will amass a large number of visits over the next few years.
We are also planning on using a social reporting team at the 2009 conference. This means that we have a team of reporters taking photographs, videos and writing comments (visitor’ view) and streaming this out live on the internet. This content will add to the UKASFP generated content on the internet.
I am also currently building strong connections with the facebook networking site (developing a facebook app for those who use the site) as this will encourage visitors to the UKASFP and possibly more members and new generations.
Finally I hope to develop a group of members willing to discuss how we can best use these new tools and online community features to develop the future UKASFP online profile. Any willing volunteers please could you contact me and I will arrange a online meeting and shared document.
What is social media and social networking?
Social media (the type of content that drives social networking) is best understood as a group of new kinds of online media, which share most or all of the following characteristics:
PARTICIPATION
social media encourages contributions and feedback from everyone who is interested. It blurs the line between media and audience.
OPENNESS
most social media services are open to feedback and participation. They encourage
voting, comments and the sharing of information. There are rarely any barriers to accessing and making use of content – password-protected content is frowned on.
CONVERSATION
whereas traditional media is about “broadcast” (content transmitted or distributed to an audience) social media is better seen as a two-way conversation.
COMMUNITY
social media allows communities to form quickly and communicate effectively. Communities share common interests, such as a love of photography, a political issue or a favourite TV show.
CONNECTEDNESS
Most kinds of social media thrive on their connectedness, making use of links to other sites, resources and people.
Survey results:
58 responders
12 countries identifiable from IP addresses including Slovenia, Russia, Serbia, Taiwan and Saudi Arabia.
The results were:
Q.1 Do you use any social networking sites?
Yes 31 (53.4%)
No 27 (46.6%)
Q.2 If you answered yes to Q1, how often do you use these sites?
Daily 9 (28.1%)
Monthly 6 (18.8%)
Weekly 5 (15.6%)
Hardly ever 12 (37.5%)
Q.3 How will you see yourself using social networking sites in the future?
More often 30 (51.7%)
Not at all 18 (31%)
Less often 10 (17.2%)
Q.4 Do you think online social networking will play an important role in your future?
Not sure yet 23 (39.7%)
No 19 (32.8%)
Yes 16 (27.6%)
Q.5 Can you get internet and email on your mobile phone?
No 37 (63.8%)
Yes 21 (36.2%)
Although the survey only gathers the data from around 1/3 of the Association members, it indicates that of these around 53% use social networking sites such as facebook, bebo, myspace etc. Interestingly around 1/3 of these use the sites hardly at al while 28% use daily with other using either weekly or monthly.
When asking all respondents if they will use these sites in the future 51.7% said they would more often, around 1/3 said not at all and a few even less often.
When asked if the respondents felt that social networking sites will play an important role in the future the results where relatively evenly spread between not sure, no and yes.
The significant results in relation to the current focus on embracing social networking in the UKASFP seems to be that at least half the respondents already use social networking sites with the majority of these continuing to do so.
In terms of a future focus it is interesting to see that more than half see themselves as using social networking in the future. This is an important factor to keep in mind when developing a social network platform that integrates with other platforms such as facebook and flickr.
The survey results also indicate the need to be mindful that not everyone shares the same enthusiasm for new web technologies and approaches as 17% of the respondents felt they would use socialnetworking sites less in the future and around a third felt that social networking would not play an important part in their future.
Many of the current technologies on hand are designed to be used on mobile systems such as mobile phones, these technologies allow such things as mass participation at events and location based networking (conferences etc). It is important to keep in mind though, that only 36% of respondent’s access even email on their phones therefore any developments in the future requiring accessing data on a mobile phone needs to be useful to a higher percentage.
What is already working?
At present we have an email list that is proving useful for a number of association members, we have a business focused website (ukasfp.co.uk) and now we have the more social network focused website (ukasfp.com) which allows content to be developed from the members, the community of practice.
Getting curious
At first the ideas of introducing technology into the association may seem daunting, however I believe we are already using much of this useful technology, however it is in the way we use the media that is important. The purpose of this survey and blog post is to only to encourage the first steps into getting curious about the range of social networking applications available, for others this post will hopefully be encouraging more user generated content.
Next steps
We currently have a number of projects under way that will develop the UKASFP’s presence on the internet. The first is a wikipedia page on Solution Focused Practice developed by a small team of UKASFP members. Although we cannot own the wiki page due to the collaboration process surrounding the application we can have a prominent association with the wiki. I believe the wiki page will amass a large number of visits over the next few years.
We are also planning on using a social reporting team at the 2009 conference. This means that we have a team of reporters taking photographs, videos and writing comments (visitor’ view) and streaming this out live on the internet. This content will add to the UKASFP generated content on the internet.
I am also currently building strong connections with the facebook networking site (developing a facebook app for those who use the site) as this will encourage visitors to the UKASFP and possibly more members and new generations.
Finally I hope to develop a group of members willing to discuss how we can best use these new tools and online community features to develop the future UKASFP online profile. Any willing volunteers please could you contact me and I will arrange a online meeting and shared document.
Comment
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Comment by Paul Avard on February 22, 2009 at 2:29pm -
Makes sense to use the site as fully as possible, I reckon. Well done for all your hard work Carl.
Paul
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Comment by Evan George on February 22, 2009 at 1:29pm -
Carl that's a nice idea. Sounds like something that will get people logging on here more.
Evan
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Comment by Carl Plant on February 22, 2009 at 1:25pm -
yes actually an idea I was chewing over is placing some of the content from Solution news prior to the publication, to allow discussion and development of the piece through conversations with members of the UKASFP. At the moment only UKASFP members can comment here however this is also open to discussion.
Your right about more people may mean more discussion and so I hope we have already started this move, thanks for that Evan.
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Comment by Evan George on February 22, 2009 at 1:20pm
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Hi Carl
It seems to me that this site will only be used if there is greater footfall on it. If people migrate here then there will be interesting disucssions here and then more people will join up.
Are there any policy issues, discussions, things that the committee is considering that could be constructed as a group for people to join in the talking HERE?
Just a thought.
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Comment by Carl Plant on February 22, 2009 at 12:43pm
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Thank you so much Carole, I fully appreciate the email discussion board works very well for many. My hopes are that we can have conversations in many places much like in our other networks (corridors, kitchen table, at the gym etc).
I hope to be able to encourage connecting these different conversations by using email notifications such as the ones attached to this discussion (which has the choice of switching on or off). Another example is we now have a UKASFP facebook page which is automatically updated with the activity from this website. We have just had a student from Finland request a visit to Staffordshire's SF Community due to finding about us through facebook!
I look forward to meeting you at the conference as always xx
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Comment by Carole Waskett on February 22, 2009 at 11:56am -
HI Carl,
Although I'm not particularly interested in using the social media/networking sites myself (the discussion board is enough for me!) I want to cheer you on with what you're doing. You seem to have the energy and knowledge to spread UKASFP and the solution focused approach in a very collaborative and inclusive way, much further than ever before - good on you and more power to your elbow!
All the very best (and looking forward to the Conference!)
Carole
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